Internet Marketing Made Simple – Page 19

How To Get Insight

The final step is to formally ask your market to take a survey in order to better understand their challenges in the niche.

TIP: You can make it easy to distribute your survey and collect the results by using a tool like SurveyMonkey.com.

The key to a good survey is to make sure you’re not asking leading questions. Elsewhere, we’ve talked about how to create questions that don’t bias the reader. However, another important point to make is that sometimes you can inadvertently bias your survey takers simply based on the ORDER you ask the questions.

For example, if you ask your participants a bunch of questions in a row about money (how much they make, how much they spend in the niche, etc.), they’re going to have money on their minds for the rest of the survey. If you start asking them how much they’d pay for a particular solution in your niche, you may get low-ball answers. That’s because survey participants are suddenly very aware of their niche spending habits – if they perceive those habits as too extravagant, then they may decide right there while taking the survey that they’re not going to spend as much money in the niche.

So, how do you get around this problem of the question order inadvertently leading the subjects to particular answers?

One of the best ways to do this is by randomizing the order of the questions. That means that when Suzy comes to take the survey, she’ll answer questions in one order. When Joe take the survey, he’ll get the questions presented in a different order than Suzy. When Manuel takes the survey, the order of his questions will be different than both Suzy’s and Joe’s survey. If you randomize the order for all your survey takers, then you won’t get results that are biased due to the order of the question.

Go back to the money example above. If the money questions are randomized in the survey, then subjects won’t be so acutely aware of their spending habits (because you’ll get them thinking about other facets of the niche). And you’ll get better, more accurate answers.

Here are examples of questions to ask:

What are your greatest problems/challenges in the niche?
What solutions have you tried?
Have those solutions worked for you? If not, why not?
What do you like best about the solutions you’re currently using?
How would you improve the solutions you’re currently using?
What is your [niche relevant] goal?
What sort of products do you need to achieve this goal?
What sort of information do you need to achieve this goal?
What features would you like to see in a (niche-relevant) product?

Be sure to also collect demographic information from your audience, such as age, gender, where they live and all the other data points we talked about previously.

The reason this is important is because your niche market may have slightly different demographics than the ones you uncovered via Pew Research or other scholarly sources.

And here’s something else…

If you get enough surveys, you may be able to start creating different customer avatars based on your different market segments.

For example, let’s suppose you sell weight loss solutions to women. You may realize one segment of your market consists of new moms who want to lose the baby weight, while another segment consists of middle-age women who are struggling with weight loss because their metabolisms are slowing down. Once you know you’re serving two distinct segments of the market, it’s going to give you a better idea of how to better connect with your prospects. You may even segment your lists into these two groups (such as by offering two different lead magnets, each of which could appeal to a specific segment). You could then create content and products that are aimed at these two different segments.

Bottom line: the more you know about your audience, the easier it will be for you to connect with them and influence them!

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How To Go Undercover

The second step in getting into your prospect’s heads is to become a part of your target market. This means you do what they do for a day, week, month or longer. This includes:

Attending meetings related to the niche (see meetup.com). For example, if you’re catering to a weight-loss market, then you may want to attend a few Weight Watchers meetings.

Going to talks, expos and trade shows related to your niche. For example, if your niche consists of people who want to be better novelists, then you can attend writing workshops.

Visiting relevant retail stores and other gathering places. For example, go to the gym and to supplement stores like GNC if you want to understand bodybuilders.

Browsing online niche groups. This includes forums, blog communities, Facebook groups, question sites like Quora.com, and similar sites. You’ll want to keep an eye on recent discussions in order to put your finger on the current pulse of the niche.

However, when time permits you can browse the archived sections of these sites as well. This gives you a sense of whether your target market’s hopes, fears and thoughts about the niche have been fairly consistent over time. If you see they’ve evolved, then you need to figure out why.

Using products and strategies your market uses every day to achieve their goals. For example, if your market includes runners, then you should buy and use the top running shoes that your market uses. You might even compare these shoes to some of the others in your market so that you get a good sense of why people prefer the bestselling shoes over the other brands.

Doing the things your market does every day. For example, if your market includes novelists, then schedule time each day to work on a novel. This is a great way to understand how difficult it is for people in your niche to achieve their goals, which may give you ideas about what sorts of products or services would make it easier.

Be sure to talk to members of the niche about their problem or hobby – perhaps even ask for help or recommendations – just to get a better insight into the way your market thinks.

The more you immerse yourself in a niche, the better you’ll understand the niche members’ problems and what motivates them. Nothing can beat this sort of first-hand experience.

For example, let’s suppose you’re selling nutrition supplements (including recovery drinks and other supplements) to bodybuilders. You may hear bodybuilders talking about how grueling “leg day” is, and how “the DOMS” (delayed onset muscle soreness) kick in over the next 24-48 hours after a hard leg workout. However, you won’t TRULY understand how grueling it is until you try it for yourself. Once you do, you’ll realize how important it is to have the right nutrition (including supplements) to get through a typical workout. Once you understand your prospects’ pain, then you can empathize and connect with them.

And finally…

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How To Gather Demographics

The first step to x-raying your audience is to gather information about their demographics and anything else you can determine about them. This includes factors such as:

Age.
Gender.
Location (where they live – be specific).
Whether they rent or own their home.
Education level.
Income level.
Marital status.
Whether they have children (and if so, how many).
What sort of job they have (or if they’re retired).
How much money they spend in the niche.

And similar factors.

You can uncover this information by running a Google search. E.G., “dog owner demographics.” This type of search will reveal to you information that other people and organizations have gathered.

The key here is to only gather information from reputable sources such as:

Well-known research organizations such as PewResearch.org.
Peer-reviewed journals (check Google scholar).
News organizations such as PBS.com or BBC.com.
Academic institutions (e.g., universities).
Government sites (such as FDA.gov).

If you find information referenced in a piece of content, then always go to the original source of the information to verify it.

For example, if you see a reputable news organization reporting on a survey from Pew Research, go directly to Pew Research to view the information yourself. That’s because even reputable news organizations can make a typo or other error from time to time, so it’s always best to verify information. What’s more, going to the source of the information may give you additional insights and data not shared elsewhere.

TIP: Wikipedia is generally considered a poor source of information, since basically anyone can create or edit an entry. However, sometimes Wikipedia entries include references and links to scholarly articles. As such, you may use Wikipedia as a way to uncover interesting articles. However, don’t ever use Wikipedia as your source. Instead, follow the links to reputable scholarly articles and other sources of information.

Next…

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How To Encourage Sharing

Even if you create extremely shareworthy content, your visitors may not share it unless you take the following extra steps:

Be sure it’s easy to share. Don’t put any hoops between your prospects and your content such as an opt in form. What’s more, you need to be sure that your content is viewable on all platforms and devices. Many people view content on their phones, so make sure your online content has a responsive design so it looks good on smaller screens.

Create a call to action. This is where you specifically tell people to share your content (along with why they should do it). E.G., “Become a hero to your friends by clicking here to share this lifesaving information with them…”

Offer an incentive to share. You can offer free products, extra contest entries and other referral rewards to people who share your content.

TIP: Want to really kick this strategy up a notch? Then you might consider running a referral contest. The person who sends the most traffic or referrals gets your top prize (free products or cash).

Automate these incentives. This means using apps that automatically deliver rewards. One example is Rafflecopter.com, which hands out extra contest entries to those who share the contest page (or other information) with their friends.

Post it on social media. These platforms are designed for sharing content. The top platforms include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest.

If you have a blog, then be sure to include social media buttons on your blog to make it quick and easy for people to share your content. You’ll also want to include a call to action, which improves shares over just having a button alone.

The bottom line here is that you not only need to create shareworthy, emotion-engaging content, you also need to specifically encourage your prospects to share it. Together, these components help you create effective viral campaigns!

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How To Engage The Emotions

People rarely share content if they’re not moved in some way. That’s why you’ll want to appeal to some kind of emotion with your content, whenever possible. Here are some of the most common types of emotions viral content may arouse:

Happiness
Joy
Admiration
Motivation
Gratitude
Pride
Inspiration
Surprise
Satisfaction
Hope
Love
Fear
Disgust
Offensive (I listed it, but I don’t like it, use it or recommend it!)
Anger
Sadness

Take note: Positive, pleasing emotions (such as joy) tend to get more shares than negative emotions (like disgust). Here are examples of content that produce positive emotions:

An inspirational story about someone who overcame a tough problem.
A heartwarming story about someone showing an act of kindness.
A funny video.

Content that evokes negative emotions is used by many people as well, but I’m not going to discuss it in this curriculum because I’m not a proponent of it.

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How To Ensure Content is Shareworthy

Just because you create and publish content doesn’t mean your prospects will share it. First and foremost, your content needs to be shareworthy.

Here’s the thing…

Your average person tends to have some “shareworthy capital” banked on social media, on their blogs and elsewhere. This means that if they share something with their friends that isn’t all that shareworthy, their friends are going to allow it… at first. Every person gets to share a few “duds” before their friends take notice. If someone shares too many “duds,” their friends may unfollow them.

What’s more, social media platforms (like Facebook) tend to figure out what users want to see, and then they deliver more of that type of content. And, likewise, the Facebook algorithm takes notice if a user isn’t viewing, liking, sharing or commenting on a particular type of content or a particular friend’s content.

In other words: if a user is sharing a lot of “dud” content that his friends aren’t interacting with, then eventually those friends will see less of that user’s content.

What this means is that your audience is acutely aware that they can’t share “duds” – even if you give them an incentive to do so – as that will waste their sharing/social media capital. While at one time people may have shared everything (we all remember the email forwards), smart users are much more selective today. They’re not going to pass everything along.

However, they really want to share truly shareworthy content. If they share something “cool” then they’ll bank more of this sharing/social media capital (meaning their friends will see and interact with more of their content). So, if you create content that rocks your user’s world in some way, they’re going to share it. And your content will go viral.

Ready to get started? Check that your content includes as many of the following characteristics as possible…

Is your content unique in some way?

If you’re sharing the same old stuff that everyone else is sharing, then your users have no incentive to pass it along. That’s why you need to provide something fresh for users.

Now, this doesn’t mean your content needs to be something that no one else has ever seen before, ever. What this means is that some component of it should be unique. For example:

Include a new tip. Again, you don’t have to create an entirely new strategy – just one fresh tip will get people’s attention.

Offer a new twist on an old method. If you’ve discovered a new use for a strategy or product, share it.

Present content in a new way. A good way to do this is by creating a formula or system. For example, people generally used the same strategy for creating sales letters, but then someone came along and called it the AIDA formula.

Coin a new phrase. For example, you’ve seen phrases like “The Google Slap.” The slap (losing rankings or getting banned) wasn’t something new. However, the terminology WAS new, which made people sit up and pay attention.

Share a story, case study or something else personal. Even though someone else may share a case study or story, no two are alike. Yours will always be unique.

Next…

Is the content extraordinarily useful? Does it solve a problem?

When people see your content, you want them to pause for a moment and say “whoa!” or “wow!” to themselves. And when they actually put the information to work, they should be really impressed with how well it works.

In other words, your content needs to be really useful – some of your very best stuff. Even better is if it provides quick results for people, as then can put it to use and see how well it works immediately.

Is your content quick and easy to consume?

As I’ve said elsewhere, your audience has a short attention span. If they see that your content is long and/or difficult to consume, they probably won’t even bother starting to read or watch it. And this means you won’t get very many views, much less shares.

A good guideline is to create content that can be consumed and understood in just a few minutes. For example, keep your videos around three minutes (or less). Keep text-based content to less than 1000 words if possible, as the average reader can read about 200 words per minute.

Is the content presented in an aesthetically pleasing way?

First impressions count. If a prospect takes one look at your article, video or other content and it looks difficult to consume, the prospect won’t even bother.

For example, a lot of readers will simply give up on data-heavy content, as it takes too much energy to wade through it all. To make this content more aesthetically pleasing, easier to consume and easier to share, you can put it in the form of a high-quality graphic.

Finally…

Does the content look professional?

Again, first impressions count. If your content is riddled with errors, your audience is going to put a low value on your content. And they’re not going to be in a hurry to click your links, share your content or take any sort of action.

Be sure your content makes a great first impression in terms of both design and polished content. Specifically:

Hire a pro to proof your most important content. You can post a project on upwork.com to find a proofreader or search for a proofreader using Google.

Hire a pro to make your content pretty. For example, hire a designer to create a design template that you can use for a cheat sheet.

Now the next component of creating viral content…

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How You’re Going To Forward

The final step is to determine how you’re going to forward and distribute your video to your audience. Below you’ll find several ways to do it. Use as many of these methods as possible to get as much exposure as possible.

Publish on YouTube. Don’t forget to use descriptive tags to help pull in traffic (both internal traffic and traffic from the search engines).

Share on your blog. You might even create a weekly video series on popular topics to make your blog “stickier.”

Post on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Encourage your viewers to share the content with their friends.

Tell your list about your video. For best results, send two or three emails mentioning the benefits of the video, as this will boost your response rate.

Use paid advertising to get more exposure. For example, you can use the Facebook ad platform to get more exposure for your video. Be sure you select a highly targeted audience in order to get good results.

Ask your marketing partners to share it. You might even create videos specifically for your affiliates and other marketing partners to use to presell your content. If you use this strategy, then don’t include any links. Instead, tell viewers to “click the link on this page” in your call to action. That way, affiliates can insert their own links.

Share (with permission) in appropriate Facebook groups, on forums, and subreddits. For example, if you have a dog training video, then get permission from the owners of dog training forums to post about your video. At the very least, you should be able to post a link to the video in your signature files, but check the group’s terms of service first.

Submit a press release using a service like PRWeb.com to get exposure for your video. You’ll also want to submit local press releases to get local exposure.

Keep these tips in mind:

Encourage others to share it with a call to action. E.G., “Share with your friends to give them a smile!”

Give people an incentive to share the content. For example, you can offer “Part 2” of the video or a related product for free to those who share your video with their friends.

TIP: The more momentum you can get for your video on the day you launch it, the more likely it is to go viral. Use as many promotional methods as possible to garner that momentum! And then check the next section (W is for Word-Of-Mouth Advertising) to get more information on viral content…

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How To Determine The Format

Your second step is to determine the best format for your video. Here are your main options:

Talking head video. This is where the camera is trained on you as you share information, such as tips or how-to information.

Slide presentation video. This is where you create a PowerPoint-style presentation. You can set this presentation to music, or you can provide voice-over narration.

Demo video. This is where you demonstrate how to do something. E.G., you might show viewers how to create a PayPal payment button.

Whiteboard “doodle” video. This is a good choice for an explainer video, presell video or similar.

Animated video. This requires more skill or an investment on your part, but you might use an animated video as an explainer or to build relationships with your audience.

Some combination of the above. For example, you might combine a talking-head video with a demo video.

Note: If you don’t have the skills required to create and edit a video (most people don’t have these skills), no worries. You can outsource this task to a professional.

Now the next step…

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How To Determine The Function

Your first step is to determine the function of your video. In other words, what is your goal? Consider these common goals:

Grow your mailing list.

The idea here is to offer really good content that impresses your viewers, and then direct viewers to your lead page to get even more good information.

If you want to make this strategy even more effective, then create a multi-part video series. You offer “Part 1” on your blog, social media pages and other platforms. You then end the video with a call to action telling viewers to follow a link to get “Part 2” of the video. This link will end up on your lead page, where viewers will get Part 2 in exchange for an email address.

The key to this strategy is to make sure Part 1 is really impressive, which will naturally make people want to get Part 2.

In addition, you should build anticipation and even curiosity at the end of Part 1. This works particularly well if you leave people hanging at the end of Part 1 – that is, the video is useful, yet incomplete.

For example, Part 1 might be a video showing people how to set up a WordPress blog, and then Part 2 shows people how to monetize this blog.

Sell an offer directly.

In most cases, this is a video sales letter that you post on your sales page (usually alongside some text-based sales copy). The video’s sales letter will have all the elements of any other direct-response sales piece, including:

An attention-getting, benefit driven opener.

An introduction that engages and empathizes, such as letting people know you understand the pain of their problem.

Introducing the offer as the solution to ending this pain and getting rid of this problem.

A list of the top benefits of the product, along with how this product is different (and better) than similar products.

Proof that the product works (testimonials, case studies, screenshots, etc.).

Objection handling.

Risk reversal (guarantee).

Price justification.

Call to action.

Next…

Presell an offer.

The idea here is warm an audience up before you send them to a sales page. This might be your own product or an affiliate offer. This video is generally short (three minutes or less), and it focuses on the benefits of the offer.

Introduce yourself and your business to new visitors.

This is an explainer video, which typically appears on the home page of your website. It’s aimed at new visitors, and gives these prospects an idea of what your business can do for them. In other words, you’re not promoting an individual product here. Rather, you’re introducing your business as a whole.

Build your brand / establish your expertise.

Another way you can utilize video marketing is to build your brand and/or establish yourself as an expert in the niche. Mainly, you do this by providing high-quality how-to information, tips and other solutions.

Ideally, you should provide new tips or present information in a novel way. This sets you apart, and keeps your viewers coming back for me.

TIP: If you want to establish yourself as an expert, then blanket your niche with content. This includes blanketing your niche with videos, by distributing them on your blog, other people’s blogs, social media platforms, video distribution sites and more. If prospects keep running into your name and videos every time they have a problem, they’ll start to see you as the niche expert.

Next…

Develop good relationships with your audience.

People do business with those they know, like, and trust. Your prospects and customers need to be exposed to you regularly over time in order for them to know, like and trust you. You can use videos for this exposure, such as by putting up a useful video series on your blog.

Satisfy customers and solve a problem.

If your video is a paid product, such as a video course you’re selling on Udemy.com, then the primary goal of your video should be to solve a specific problem and create satisfied customers. You’ll want to be sure to encourage viewers to take action on the information you’ve provided in the video. People who take action will get good results, which in turn leads to higher customer satisfaction, repeat purchases, and referrals.

Get viewers to take some other action.

You can use videos in many different ways, including encouraging people to:

Join a contest.
Register for a webinar.
Call for a free quote.
Share your video.

Take note that your videos don’t need to be aimed solely at prospects and customers. You can also use videos to communicate with marketing partners. For example, you can use videos to announce an affiliate contest and encourage affiliates to start promoting.

Note that you should only have ONE primary goal. If you choose too many functions, your video is likely to be unfocused (and it won’t achieve any of your goals). Thus, you should choose one primary goal around which you create your video – and if your video helps you achieve secondary goals, that’s just icing on the cake.

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Prioritizing: What Is Important to Your Audience?

There’s no use in creating a USP based on a factor or benefit that’s not important to your audience. You’ll want to prioritize your proposed USPs by determining what your audience values.

Here’s how:

Survey your audience. Ask them what they value most with regards to niche-relevant solutions/products. Use plenty of open-ended questions so as not to artificially constrain answers.

Read product reviews, which will give you some insight into what your audience wants. Pay particular attention to patterns (meaning multiple people say the same thing).

Eavesdrop on your audience by reading their forum and group discussions, blog comments and similar content. What are they saying about your competitors’ products? What do they like? What do they complain about? What do they wish for in a product, service or business?

Search for market research from respected organizations to get a feel for what your ideal customer values. (E.G., look at Pew Research to learn more about your target market’s values.)

At this point, you know what your prospects want and value, so you can pick a USP from your short list that reflects these values.

Now create a succinct statement that expresses your unique selling position. Be sure to include this statement in all of your advertising, sales letters, emails, and other communications.

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